{"id":797694,"date":"2026-05-15T07:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/797694\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:45:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:45:22","slug":"oak-lawn-umc-rings-bells-600-times-for-texas-milestone-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/797694\/","title":{"rendered":"Oak Lawn UMC rings bells 600 times for Texas’ milestone execution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bells began to toll about 6 p.m. Thursday at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. For an hour and a half, they rang, 600 bells in recognition of the 600th execution by the state of Texas since the reestablishment of the death penalty in 1976.<\/p>\n

Edward Busby was put to death<\/a> at 8:11 p.m. for the 2004 abduction and murder of Laura Lee Crane, a Fort Worth mother and\u00a0former education professor. The milestone execution was delayed by an appeal<\/a> to the Supreme Court and his clemency petition.<\/p>\n

Prior to the event, Rev. Ryan Wager told\u00a0The Dallas Morning News what this event meant to Oak Lawn United Methodist Church\u2019s congregation. He said the church aims to stand up for justice and share a message of God\u2019s love, illustrating to the larger community, \u201cdeath is not the answer, that the gospel teaches God\u2019s love and ability to reconcile and not to judge someone by one specific event outweighs ending a cycle of violence with violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wager said since the April 30\u00a0execution<\/a> of James Broadnax, the death penalty has weighed on the hearts of the church\u2019s community. In search of a way to \u201cspeak love more clearly,\u201d leaders settled upon this event. The bells were chosen because they would be heard throughout Oak Lawn.<\/p>\n

As the bells rang, roughly 20 congregants and church leaders sat silently in the chapel. The front doors were opened so the bells could be heard, though the sound remained faint.<\/p>\n

The chatter of three small children playing in the corner cut through the faint ringing. Congregants, most of whom sat alone in pews, bowed their heads with their eyes closed. Some wiped tears from their eyes.<\/p>\n

Rev. Rachel Griffin-Allison kneeled at the communion rail in prayer as the bells rang.<\/p>\n

She later told\u00a0The News\u00a0the service marked an \u201cimportant way for the community to stand for the sacredness of every human life. She added, \u201cno one is defined by their worst moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the bells paused for the 6:30 p.m. prayer service, a piano’s notes immediately filled the space.<\/p>\n

In a video message to congregants, Texas U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico thanked the church for organizing the event, which he called a \u201creminder of our shared humanity\u201d in light of a \u201csomber milestone\u201d for the state of Texas.<\/p>\n

He expressed hope for a Texas guided by dignity, humanity and community. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The first reading of the prayer service was shared in Spanish. The Church\u2019s American Sign Language interpreter assisted throughout the readings and hymns.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight, we gather in the shadow of a number,\u201d Wager said to open his reflection.<\/p>\n

He spoke to the United Methodist Church\u2019s social commitments, one of which is to honor the inherent worth and dignity of all people.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight, the bells ring, not for spectacle, not for celebration, but as a witness,\u201d he said. The bells, he added, serve as a reminder that \u201cDeath should never become ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin-Allison and congregant Bette Ortega closed the service by reading the social creed of the United Methodist Church in both English and Spanish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bells began to toll about 6 p.m. Thursday at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. For an hour and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":797695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,16045,11412,325267,358,290169,324684,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-797694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-death-penalty","11":"tag-faith","12":"tag-news-faith","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tp-dallas","15":"tag-tp-oak-lawn","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116577483968387040","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}